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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27169202">Snowball Effect</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/copernicusjones/pseuds/copernicusjones'>copernicusjones</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons Series (Video Games), 牧場物語つながる新天地 | Story of Seasons (Video Game 2014)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Lutz &amp; Melanie can be seen as slightly shippy but they're just kids so, Snowball Fight, Winter, Zine: A Brand New Season</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 01:16:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,553</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27169202</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/copernicusjones/pseuds/copernicusjones</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After a disappointing birthday party, Lutz isn't sure if Melanie still wants to be friends with someone as boring as him.  Johnny has the solution.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lutz | Ruutsu &amp; Johnny | Ibuki (Story of Seasons), Lutz | Ruutsu &amp; Melanie | Meruti (Story of Seasons)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>A Brand New Season</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Snowball Effect</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Lutz's mom had warned him about the dangers of staying out in the cold, she likely hadn't been talking about being barraged by snowballs while wandering around Johnny's orchard.</p><p>The attack's source was instantly apparent, Johnny's cry of “Sneak attack!” ringing through the air. Lutz stumbled backwards with an “<em>oof! </em>”, nearly falling as he flailed at the snowballs blitzing him from head to toe.</p><p>Brushing the snow from his scarf, Lutz looked up just in time to see Johnny dart between orange trees. More snowballs, a seemingly endless stream, were hurled at Lutz. Several made contact.</p><p>Lutz ran—or rather, in his heavy coat, waddled quickly—towards the tree he suspected Johnny was behind, awkwardly gathering up an armful of snow on the way. Hastily, and just like Johnny had shown him a couple days ago, he packed it into the best snowball he could.</p><p>When Johnny peeked out, Lutz let him have it. With all his might, he heaved the snowball.</p><p>It missed Johnny.</p><p>But made perfect impact with the low-hanging branches above him, heavy with ripe oranges.</p><p>Ice-coated twigs snapped and oranges fell, followed by a melodramatic shout. Johnny reappeared, staggering around and clutching his head as if fatally struck. Then, he collapsed gracelessly to the snow-packed ground, spread-eagle on his back, head lolling to the side as he feigned dead.</p><p>He <em> was </em>faking it, wasn't he? Lutz shuffled over to his friend as fast as he could. “Johnny?” Breath plumed out in small puffs from his nose, so he was definitely alive. But what if he'd been hurt...?! “Are you okay?”</p><p>Johnny's eyes popped open, a huge grin splitting his face. “'Sup?” Clearly, he was more than okay.</p><p>Relieved, Lutz smiled back, though still felt the need to defend his actions. “I wasn't <em> trying </em> to hit the tree! Honest! It just... <em> happened.</em>”</p><p>“Hey, you don't gotta play dumb with me; I know that was your strategy all along.” Johnny remained on the ground and began scissoring his arms up and down, his legs back and forth. A snow angel. “Guess a full-on offensive assault isn't always the key to victory.”</p><p>Lutz hadn't thought about winning while it'd been happening—not that he was really sure a snowball fight could be won, technically. All he'd cared about in that moment was how fun it'd been.</p><p>Which only served as a reminder of how <em> not</em>-fun yesterday had been. Smile fading, Lutz tightened his scarf, hoping to hide his disappointment.</p><p>“Lutz, what's wrong, man?”</p><p>“Nothing,” Lutz lied, regretting his decision to seek out Johnny in the first place. “Just um... worn out.”</p><p>“C'mon, bro, be real with me.” Johnny paused mid-scissor, true concern in his words. “How can you be in this kind of funk after kicking my butt in a snowball fight!... and after turning the big one-zero?”</p><p>“Because Melanie's mad at me. I don't think she wants to be friends anymore.”</p><p>“That's crazy talk! You two are like milk and cookies, peanut butter and jelly.” Johnny laughed, bright through the stillness of the orchard. “Like noodles and ketchup.”</p><p>Lutz made a face, a mix of disgust and confusion. “Gross!”</p><p>“Well, I dunno, I eat it together all the time and—”</p><p>Sighing, Lutz tried to steer the topic back on track. “My birthday party yesterday... it wasn't good, Johnny.”</p><p>“Not good?” Johnny repeated, incredulous. “How could it be <em> not good</em>?”</p><p>“It was <em> boring</em>.” Lutz knew his mom would scold him if she heard this tone in his voice. Say he was being whiny, ungrateful. <em> Childish</em>. But this was Johnny, who understood how unfair adults could be, and ranted about it just as much as Lutz yearned to, if not more. “We didn't do anything except eat cake—”</p><p>“Doesn't sound boring to me.”</p><p>“—And sit inside and play board games.”</p><p>“<em>That</em>… is definitely boring. What about sledding, huh?”</p><p>Lutz let out another dejected sigh.</p><p>Johnny groaned, then propelled himself up to a crouch, which turned into an ungainly hop out of his completed snow angel. He dusted his blue coat off, moving to stand closer to Lutz. His annoyance at the situation was genuine; this wasn't just him humoring Lutz by pretending to be offended on his behalf. “You're kidding! Tell me you at <em> least </em> took one trip down the mountainside on that bad boy!”</p><p>Lutz shook his head. “Mom said it was too cold to be out all evening—and that running around after we'd ate so much wasn't healthy, either. So we stayed in.”</p><p>The sled in question wasn't just any sled; it'd been Melanie's gift to Lutz. Her dad had built it and she'd helped to paint it, a shiny royal blue lacquer over the finest lumber Gunther could provide. Johnny's knowledge of it had been a result of Melanie's inability to keep the gift a secret. She'd been excited to give it to him, just as much as Lutz had been to get it.</p><p>Johnny tried to find some sort of consolation. “There was hot chocolate, at least?”</p><p>“There... was,” Lutz confirmed reluctantly.</p><p>“Wait, don't tell me... without marshmallows, huh?”</p><p>“And without whipped cream.” He told Johnny how Mom had deemed the cake and ice cream enough sugar intake for the day, and only made the marshmallow-less, whipped cream-less hot chocolate out of a feeble attempt to placate Lutz and Melanie, who were none too pleased about staying indoors. And how Melanie hadn't even finished hers, claiming she needed to be home early to help her dad make dinner—which she never did.</p><p>Johnny slapped a hand to his forehead. “Oh, Goddess, this is worse than I thought...” He drew in a deep breath, determination settling over him as he looked to Lutz. “S'okay though. We can fix this, no problemo. Melanie's gotta know deep down that it's not your fault your mom's a stick-in-the-mud. She wouldn't hang out with you at all if she really thought you were that uptight. She just needs a reminder of it, that's all.”</p><p>“But how?” Lutz didn't think a simple “sorry” would resolve it. Johnny hadn't seen Melanie close to tears; Lutz had. Somehow, he had to <em> show </em>how sorry he was, but putting theory into practice wasn't exactly his strong suit.</p><p>“Look, we just prove you're not lame,” Johnny replied. “That you're more than capable of having fun, and it's just your mom holding you back.”</p><p>“If only Melanie'd seen our snowball fight,” Lutz said wistfully. It'd been one of the many winter activities he'd hoped for yesterday, after the blizzard over the weekend. For as thrilling as it'd been battling Johnny just now, it wasn't the same as doing so on your birthday with your best friend. “Or better yet, if she'd been <em> part </em> of it.”</p><p>“Hey, two against one isn't fair, that's not—...!” Johnny stopped mid-sentence. “No, wait; actually, that's perfect.”</p><p>“What? A snowball fight?”</p><p>Johnny snap-pointed at Lutz. “Bingo-bango, dude. That's <em> exactly </em> it.”</p>
<hr/><p>Lutz thought of himself as book-smart, but Johnny was <em> clever</em>. And so when Johnny told Lutz to count on him, Lutz trusted him entirely.</p><p>And worried just as much.</p><p>Could he keep up his end of Johnny's plan? All he had to do was wait for Melanie in the central plaza outside his house, and give some form of an apology. Johnny would take care of the rest.</p><p>So, shortly after a late lunch, Lutz did as he'd been instructed. The plaza was... <em> unique</em>, to say the least, with mismatched ornaments and statues plunked down in no discernible arrangement. Johnny called it a work of art; everyone else called it chaos.</p><p>The sound of quick, crunchy footsteps tore Lutz's attention away from studying the two maiden statues. He turned to find Melanie jogging towards him, and couldn't help smiling when she waved.</p><p>“Hey, what's up?” she said, smiling back behind her scarf. “Johnny said you wanted to see me—and that you had more cake to share?”</p><p>She sounded more hesitant than eager—how could this end any better than yesterday?</p><p>“If you want some, yes, I thought...” What had Johnny told him to say? Lutz couldn't remember, and had already been warned before that the majority of the things Johnny said, he shouldn't go around repeating. Whatever that meant. “I know you're still upset about the birthday party, and... I'm so sorry, Melanie. I hope we can still be friends... I really do have fun with you. Please don't think I agree with my mom! I love your present; it's the best one I've ever gotten.”</p><p>He probably could have worded it better, but he meant every last bit! It felt like an eternity as he waited for Melanie's response... which was throwing her arms around Lutz, circling him in a tight hug.</p><p>“Oh Lutz, of course I'm not mad at you.” She giggled and gave him another squeeze before pulling away. “Anymore, anyway. After I got home, I talked to my dad about it, and that made me feel a ton better. He said he'd talk to your mom... so maybe we'll get to use the sled after all!”</p><p>Lutz wasn't sure how effective that'd be, since his mom was the most stubborn person he knew. Then again, Mr. Maurice was so friendly and well-spoken. If anyone had a chance of changing Mom's mind,  it was him.</p><p>Melanie took Lutz's silence for the uncertainty that it was. “And if not, then there's lots of other fun things we could do! Like build a snowman, or—”</p><p>“Snow angels?” Lutz suggested.</p><p>“Yeah! Perfect! Or—”</p><p>
  <em> SPLACT! </em>
</p><p>Melanie shrieked, a burst of snow exploding against her shoulder. She fell forward, and Lutz caught her.</p><p>“Gotcha!” Johnny shouted from somewhere off-aways. Lutz looked up to see him at the plaza next to Mr. Klaus's house, disappearing behind a purple cone decoration stationed there.</p><p>“Are you okay?” he asked Melanie, who had pulled away and was swiping snow off her yellow coat.</p><p>“I'll be better when we teach Johnny a lesson about ambushing innocent girls with snowballs!” Melanie's glare was almost as scary as Mom's was. When Lutz didn't immediately agree, Melanie huffed, “Unless you're in on this too! If you just tricked me into coming here so you could—”</p><p>“No!” Lutz held up his mittened hands defensively. “I would never do that! I—”</p><p>
  <em> THWAPT! </em>
</p><p>For the second time that day, Lutz was blindsided by a snowball. But unlike the first time, he went down, thick coat cushioning his fall.</p><p>Snowballs streaked towards them. Melanie dropped down beside Lutz. She grabbed his arm and tugged. “Come <em> on</em>, don't just lay there! Follow me!”</p><p>Too stunned to argue, Lutz went along with Melanie. Remaining stooped over so as to avoid the line of fire, they hurried behind a maiden statue, whose shield became more than decorative against the onslaught of snowballs.</p><p>“What's his problem?” Melanie hissed. “Why pick a snowball fight with two kids? What's he trying to prove?”</p><p>And that's when it hit Lutz, solid like a snowball: Johnny wasn't trying to prove anything about himself. He was just an accessory, whereas Lutz was the one with something to prove. And now was his chance.</p><p>“I don't think he has a problem,” Lutz answered. “This is just how he is. He's trying to have some fun.”</p><p>“Sounds about right,” Johnny replied, much <em> much </em>closer than he'd been a minute ago. He popped out from around the statue, and another snowball splattered atop Lutz's head. Melanie's squeal signified she'd met the same fate.</p><p>Jumping to her feet, Melanie sprang at Johnny. She wasn't strong enough to take him down, but she didn't need strength when Lutz dove at Johnny's knees, corralling his arms around them. Johnny toppled over, eliciting triumphant yells from Lutz and Melanie.</p><p>After that, it became a blur. Snow and laughter and <em> fun</em>, a free-for-all as the two-against-one that Johnny had encouraged became every-man-for-himself. Never had Lutz felt so exhilarated from running around like this; he'd always been too worried about the consequences his mom would dole out if he ruined his clothes or bent his glasses. And those thoughts were still present, but the constant rush of happiness coming from Melanie's cheers and Johnny's harmless taunts were far more powerful.</p><p>With complete indiscretion, Johnny threw snowballs at whomever he deemed nearest, and they let him have it right back—although Melanie specialized more in just flinging sprays of snow, opposed to the well-formed spheres the boys managed to pack together. When Melanie went in one direction, Lutz went the other, in hopes of confusing Johnny. Johnny chose to keep pursuing Melanie, and that's when Lutz saw an opening.</p><p>“Johnny, look out! Behind you!” Lutz called over, doing his best to imitate his chronically distressed mother. Johnny took the bait, whirling around to check behind him.</p><p>This time Lutz didn't miss; the snowball he'd been carrying around for the past several minutes flew straight and true, clocking Johnny in the back of the head. Bumbling sideways, he hollered a word that Lutz would have been grounded for saying.</p><p>Pointing at Johnny, Melanie bounced about gleefully. “Made-ja look, made-ja look!”</p><p>Johnny ran a hand through his hair, shoving his hat off as he shook the snow out. He looked between the two of them. “Oh, that's it, <em> now </em> you're really in for it!”</p><p>“Run for it, Lutz!” Melanie took off towards Lutz's house. Lutz made the split-second decision to head the same way; he couldn't leave Melanie to fend for herself!</p><p>Their paths converged at the front door, Lutz arriving beside Melanie just as Johnny caked together another snowball—the biggest one Lutz had seen yet. “Dead end!” he jeered, rearing his arm back.</p><p>Johnny fired off the snowball with a cry of “EAT SNOW!” The front door opened. Melanie and Lutz, together, ducked.</p><p>Lutz didn't need to turn around to know what the snowball had hit instead of him. Johnny's face, morphing from devilish delight to sheer terror, said it all.</p><p>Lutz whirled around anyway. There was his mom, towering above them, plastered by a snowball. Chunks of snow and ice dripped down her face; slow-motion, frighteningly so, like out of those horror movies he wasn't allowed to watch.</p><p>“Lutz, Melanie: inside. <em> Now</em>.” Her command was as crisp and cold as the winter air.</p><p>Lutz knew better than to disobey her, but he couldn't move. Neither could Melanie.</p><p>But Mom sure did. She stalked purposefully towards a stricken Johnny, swiping snow from her face.</p><p>“Oh, crap, I'm sorry! Margot! I— <em> Augggh</em>!” Backpedaling in the uneven snow, Johnny tripped over an old wooden cart in the plaza. His legs were bent over the handles as he pleaded, “I'm sorry! I'M SORRY!”</p><p>He went unheard. Lutz watched, more impressed than anything, as Mom clawed up hunks of snow from around the cart and pelted Johnny mercilessly.</p><p>Melanie erupted into a fit of laughter that had her doubled over, clutching her sides. Lutz, too, couldn't keep from grinning, even as Mom scolded a cowering Johnny within an inch of his life.</p><p>Earlier, Lutz had wondered two things: if it were even possible to win a snowball fight, and if Melanie would ever believe him capable of having fun. The answer to both, that sounded like Melanie's sparkling laugh and felt like her slouching against him as she couldn't stand for all her laughter, was a resounding, undeniable <em> yes</em>.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This was my piece for <b>A Brand New Season</b> and a collaboration with <b>yorunoangel</b>, who drew an amazing accompanying piece to go with the fic!  I had a ton of fun writing this - love me some gen, and some male protags.  Hope you enjoy!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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